Neither Maryam Nawaz’s impassioned cries for support for her ‘wronged’ father, nor Imran Khan’s fervent calls for rallying behind the Judiciary, had any effect on the silent majority of NA 120 Lahore. In the end, around 61000 voters turned out to give some reason to Maryam Nawaz to smile, and around 47000 voters defied the excesses of a determined anti-PTI government (as well as the sinister indifference of a partisan Election Commission) to boost the political stature of a decent and highly respectable lady called Dr. Yasmeen Rashid.
The total of registered votes in the constituency happen to be around 32,0000. The number in 2013 elections was around 297000. In 2013 PMLN candidate (MNS himself) had managed over 90000 votes (30% of the total), and Dr. Yasmeen Rashid (the PTI candidate) over 50,000 (around 17% of the total).
In the recent contest the number of votes of Mrs MNS has been around 61000 out of 321000 and of Mrs. Yasmeen Rashid around 47000 out of 321000. The share of the PML (N) now thus stands at 19% as against 30% in 2013; and that of Dr. Sahiba at 14.6% against 17% in 2013.
This means the PML (N) despite the advantage of being in total control of the Administration has lost around 11% support as against 2.4% lost by the PTI.
The argument that turnout in by-elections is always low, doesn’t stand relevant in the context of the NA 120 election. At stake here was the future of the PML(N).
Very few electoral contests have enjoyed so much hype in living memory.
Why did around 200000 voters (62% of the total) refuse to participate in the ‘do or die’ battle?
Wasn’t it a no-confidence vote of an overwhelming majority of the masses in the system?
Those who want to call it (or are calling it) triumph of democracy should think of some way of changing the meaning of the word TRIUMPH. How can a system that attaches value to around 19% of the electorate and rejects the spoken or unspoken aspirations of around 81%, be dubbed as TRIUMPHANT?
- Latest
- Trending
